Hey guys, Ernie here with another piece from David Buck, who knows the truth about the Surfin’ Bird. Previously, he was talkin’ Y2K. Today in Tedium: In a recent Tedium piece, Ernie posed the question: “Can one become nostalgic for abrasive noises?” He was referring to alarm clocks, but that got me thinking about songs […]

​The internet loves “Shrek.” That should be clear to anyone who’s logged onto to a website weirder than Facebook any time after 2013. And love can make the internet do crazy things. Like, for example, map all the audio from the 2001 DreamWorks classic to a MIDI pianola. This labor of love from YouTuber MrMemenea is undeniably amazing. But […]

A neuron firing deep in the brain might sound a little like: Drumroll…cymbal crash! Drumroll…cymbal crash! Repeat. With emphasis on “repeat,” according to a new study. This article was originally published on MedicalExpress. See the original post.

The reckoning for abusive men that started in Hollywood has turned its eye towards the music industry. This week, after three women accused Republic Records group president Charlie Walk of sexual harassment and assault, he was placed on leave from the company pending an investigation and will not appear on the final episode of The […]

Just 13% of those composing music for screen are women, according to membership figures from APRA AMCOS, the organisation that looks after copyright for songwriters, composers and music publishers in Australia. Female screen composers sit at the intersection of two industries – music and film – that have both been recognised as being male-dominated. To […]

CIRMMT Distinguished Lectures in the Science and Technology of Music Dan Gauger, BOSE, USA 20 April 2017 – Tanna Schulich Hall This video was originally published on CIRMMTvideo. View original on YouTube.

A mechanized extra thumb would fit right into our oncoming bizarro cyberpunk future. Dani Clode created a prototype of the Third Thumb for her graduate work at the Royal College of Art, as seen in this video from the design-focused website Dezeen. The bonus digit is powered by a motor worn on the wrist and […]

For many, music is a unifier—an art form that brings people together and allows us to connect over shared emotions. But what if you couldn’t hear the lyrics or rhythms that add meaning to our lives? Enter Myles de Bastion and his Audiolux visualization system. Though he now identifies as Deaf, the Portland-based artist and […]

It’s that time of year again. British hopes and dreams weigh once again on one shy Scotsman’s shoulders. Expectant tennis fans will throng together on Murray Mound to eat strawberries and cream and talk up their hero’s chances. Can he do it again? Is he mentally prepared for the challenge? New research into the noises […]

The electric guitar symbolizes rebellion, freedom, excess and youth. But with the classic rock period well behind us, is it in danger of becoming a faded relic? The Washington Post recently reported on declining sales in the American electric guitar industry, with some manufacturers expressing concerns about its future. One reason for this was said […]

Long before Drake and Bieber, the CanCon radio quotas allowed for groups like b4–4, Prozzäk, and the Moffatts to thrive up North. Um, wait … who? Prepare to cringe. I am really sorry, but I need to begin by doing something terribly un-Canadian: bragging. You’re welcome, America. For decades, you’ve been the leading beneficiary of my homeland’s […]

How do we learn to write? Associate Professor NONAKA Tetsushi (Kobe University Graduate School of Human Development and Environment) looked at the development of writing skills in Japanese first-grade students learning the hiragana script. By quantifying their pen movements, he revealed the process of learning distinct temporal patterns of movement in such a way to […]

Read her lips: Britney Spears is pissed and she wants credit. In a recent interview that ran on Israeli TV, the pop diva decried those who accuse her of lip-syncing. “A lot of people think that I don’t sing live,” Spears said. “Because I’m dancing so much I do have a little bit of playback, […]

Are Pop Lyrics Getting More Repetitive? An Exercise in Language Compression Are Pop Lyrics Getting More Repetitive? By Colin Morris In 1977, the great computer scientist Donald Knuth published a paper called The Complexity of Songs, which is basically one long joke about the repetitive lyrics of newfangled music (example quote: “the advent of modern […]